Hands On: Suikoden V

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We finally get to play the next entry in the Suikoden series.

By Anoop Gantayat

Konami showed off an early playable build of Suikoden V at the Tokyo Game Show back in September, but there was a big problem with the demo. Players started the game from the beginning, and ended up experiencing a lengthy story sequence, with time running out before gameplay began. In short, we no get make character move! Not the recommended way to show off your upcoming RPG (especially to non Japanese people).

The same demo is on display at the Akihabara Entertainment Festival, a gaming/anime event being held in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district in cooperation with the Tokyo International Film Festival. There weren't too many people at the event, and Sony wasn't being strict with time limits, so we were able to spend a good deal more time with the demo. In short, we get make character move!

Suikoden V begins with a group of four characters en route to the Kingdom (or perhaps Queendom) of Fallena via boat. The group includes the main characters -- you -- and his assistant, Rionne. You can see much of this opening in direct feed form over in our video section.

You play as the son of the Queen of Fallena. Upon returning home, you're greeted by the castle subjects and the princess, whom we presume will end up serving as the successor to the Queen. She actually adores you, having eagerly awaited your return. The Queen summons you to an audience, and here, you're given the option of selecting a greeting. You can chose a formal greeting worthy of a Queen, or a more familiar greeting expected of a mother/son relationship. The game offers these interactive choices every now and then.

Following lots of voiced conversation, the queen asks that you give her a report of what happened on your journey. And so begins the first gameplay sequence that no one got to play at TGS.

The opening game sequence is actually a playable flashback as you recount your journeys to your mom. You've just traveled to a town that has been befallen of some great catastrophe. The town is now a ghost town, and its center, once a great lake, has been turned dry.

You take control of the main character once you enter this town. As you move about town, entering buildings and speaking to the few residents, Rionne is seen following you from behind. Suikoden V keeps the camera above your characters in a three-fourths overhead view. The game currently features a strange camera control system. You can press the R1 shoulder button or use the right analogue stick to step between viewing distances of your character. And that's it. Considering that the same function is given to two different buttons, we suspect Konami will be working on a more robust camera system for the final version. Without the ability to rotate the camera, it's easy to lose site of your characters behind a building.

Eventually, we managed to get into a battle. While walking around town, we came upon a couple of residents who were troubled over the fact that a friend had gone into a nearby forest, where -- you guessed it -- beast counts have been rising of late. In typical RPG fashion, Rionne volunteers your party to go into the forest and find the missing person. It's RPG's oldest cliche, but we hope it's the last one we'll see in Suikoden V.

Suikoden V on display

Battles are, expectedly, random. Through our initial playtest of three battles with a green blob creatures, we found the battle system to be pretty standard fare. The demo was set up with four party members, although the menu screen includes enough slots for a six member party, and lets you switch characters in and out from what looks like it could be a large character list. On each turn, you select the moves for all your characters, choosing between a standard attack, defense, fleeing and item use. You can also choose to leave the decisions to the computer for a single turn.

The only difference we saw from other RPGs was in a collaborative attack that pairs up two characters. Our party of four was split into two sub groups, one consisting of members of the royal family (including yourself) and another consisting of the two characters who were sent out by the Queen to protect you. Each of these teams has its own team attack, which results in special camera angles for moves.

Right now, Suikoden V seems to be the most basic of RPG experiences, although with plenty in the way of voice and a graphics engine that's clearly seen some improvements over Suikoden 4. As far as PS2 games are concerned, Konami's latest is a pleasure to look at. The characters are modeled well and animate nicely during cinema scenes. The first town look dusty and wasted away, suitable for a ghost town. The only area that really needs work is the main character's running animation. It's unnatural at this point.

While the experience over the first half our was as standard as Japanese RPGs come, we're still looking forward to sinking our teeth into Suikoden V when it sees release. The game is still without a final release date, but considering how polished it looks at this point, we get the feeling that a release isn't too far off.